Investing in Space: NASA's months of reckoning

For fractional a twelvemonth now, NASA's been weathering a tempest connected each front, from its fund to its concatenation of bid and imaginable programme terminations. Employee uproar was an inevitable section of the saga.

A radical of 360 existent and erstwhile NASA employees person penned a missive rebuking "rapid and wasteful changes" crossed staffing, ngo and budgetary cuts astatine the abstraction agency.

"The past six months person seen accelerated and wasteful changes which person undermined our ngo and caused catastrophic impacts connected NASA's workforce," the missive says, noting concerns that the projected downsizing successful unit and backing are "arbitrary and person been enacted successful defiance of legislature appropriations law" and that "the consequences for the bureau and the state alike are dire."

Signatories of the letter, titled the Voyager Declaration, impulse the U.S. enactment not to instrumentality "harmful" cuts and quality "non-strategic staffing reductions," curtailing probe projects, arsenic good arsenic cancelling contracts and information successful planetary missions oregon assignments for which Congress has already appropriated funding. It's nary tiny database of objections raised astatine a clip of broader uncertainty astatine NASA, which faces important — and agelong chronicled — declines successful backing and staff, amid a broader White House propulsion to shrink down the national workforce.

"NASA volition ne'er compromise connected safety. Any reductions—including our existent voluntary reduction—will beryllium designed to support safety-critical roles," NASA Spokesperson Bethany Stevens said successful an emailed statement. "The world is that President Trump has projected billions of dollars for NASA science, demonstrating an ongoing committedness to communicating our technological achievements. To guarantee NASA delivers for the American people, we are continually evaluating ngo lifecycles, not connected sustaining outdated oregon lower-priority missions."

Adding to the tumult, NASA connected Monday announced the high-level exit of Makenzie Lystrup, who volition extremity her two-year stint arsenic Goddard Space Flight Center manager connected Aug. 1. NASA says the measurement was communicated internally earlier immoderate cognition of the letter. It's not the archetypal nonaccomplishment from the agency's elder ranks successful caller months:  Laurie Leshin stepped down from the manager station of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory successful June.  And much exits could beryllium forthcoming: astatine the commencement of the month, Politico reported that astatine slightest 2,145 senior-level employees could depart NASA, galore serving successful halfway ngo sets.

Throughout, NASA — notable for some its ain achievements and its important contracts to the U.S. backstage abstraction manufacture — has remained without semipermanent leadership, aft U.S. President Donald Trump's archetypal pick, tech billionaire and Elon Musk state Jared Isaacman, was unexpectedly removed from information backmost successful May. Sean Duffy, Trump's proscription secretary, was appointed to clasp up the fort arsenic NASA's interim head conscionable this month.

Inevitably, there's wealth connected the line.  NASA clinched a fund of $24.875 cardinal past twelvemonth — 8.5% nether its archetypal petition and 2% beneath the backing of 2023 — that was matched successful 2025. Under the Trump administration, the bureau battled the anticipation of a astir 25% fund trim successful 2026, though the U.S. House of Appropriations subcommittee has pushed backmost connected these cuts. If enacted, the Trump backing connection of $18.8 cardinal would person been the smallest NASA fund since earlier the U.S.' archetypal crewed Moon landing via the Apollo 11 mission, commemorated this week connected July 20.

In a Monday statement, Trump said his medication is "building connected the bequest of Apollo 11" and endorsed NASA's initiatives focused connected "returning Americans to the Moon —this clip to enactment — and putting the archetypal boots connected Mars." Colonizing the reddish satellite has been a vocally stated nonsubjective of the U.S. president since his January instrumentality to office, echoing the ambitions of his then-ally Musk. The 2 person since parted ways done an explosive rift, but the imagination to onshore U.S. astronauts connected the Moon and Mars has gripped the nation, with a respective 67% and 65% of those surveyed successful a CBS News/YouGov pollv present successful favor. 

• Illegal to instrumentality NASA cuts earlier Congress gives greenish airy to budget: Democrats — Democrats connected a House committee overlooking NASA's fund person written a missive to Sean Duffy, the abstraction agency's caller acting administrator, saying it would beryllium "flatly illegal" to proceed with operation and workforce changes earlier NASA's fund has been passed done Congress. — Reuters
• South Korea seeks to physique a lunar basal by 2045 — South Korea is looking to physique a satellite basal wrong the adjacent 20 years nether the country's caller semipermanent nationalist abstraction exploration roadmap, the Korea AeroSpace Administration said. Seoul besides intends to make a next-generation lunar lander by 2040. — Yonhap
• UK tin marque 'major contribution' to abstraction sustainability, study says — Armed with important concern and authorities support, the U.K. could go a "responsible, intelligent and autarkic leader" successful abstraction sustainability, a caller study found, noting the country's opportunities successful abstraction manufacturing, drug-making and stem compartment harvest. — Physics World
• How Star Trek helped sanction NASA's abstraction shuttles — NASA's archetypal abstraction shuttle, dubbed Enterprise, was initially expected to beryllium called Constitution, earlier Star Trek fans intervened. — BBC Future
• Orius builds gravity simulator to analyse works growth — French steadfast Orius has constructed Gravilab, a gravity simulator with 2 rotating axes, which volition analyse however definite gravity environments interaction works growth. — Hortidaily
• Most Americans favour going to Mars, canvass finds — A CBS News/YouGov canvass has uncovered that 65% of Americans enactment the thought of U.S. astronauts going to Mars, portion 2 thirds of those surveyed besides backmost sending U.S. cosmonauts to research the Moon again. — CBS News

• Linde to ramp up  U.S. aerial state capableness to service abstraction sector — Industrial state supplier Linde volition physique a caller aerial separation portion successful Texas to summation its capableness and enactment the U.S. abstraction industry, successful enactment with 2 agreements to proviso liquid oxygen and nitrogen for rocket take-offs. — Gas World
• Golden Dome main outlines steps to present strategy — General Michael Guetlein has laid retired the plans to bring astir the U.S.' ambitious Golden Dome rocket intercepting strategy wrong 3 years. — Space News

• Rocket Lab banal rally continues — Rocket Lab's U.S.-listed banal gained further ground, with Bank of America and Citi penning precocious terms targets amid favorable aerospace and defence assemblage marketplace conditions. — AInvest
• ArianeGroup, Nikon to backmost accumulation of ultra-large-scale components — ArianeGroup and 3D metallic printer shaper Nikon person partnered up to enactment output of ultra-large-scale components supra 1 cubic metre done additive manufacturing. — Nikon
• SpaceX plans to detonate rockets implicit Hawaii's waters — The Federal Aviation Administration has fixed Elon Musk's SpaceX support to detonate rocket ships implicit the protected waters of the Mokumanamana island, which is beatified to indigenous people, The Guardian reports — The Guardian

• July 25 — Russia's Roscosmos to motorboat Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M retired of Siberia, carrying 2 satellites for the Ionosfera constellation
• July 25 — Arianespace's Vega-C to instrumentality disconnected with CO3D quartet of Earth observations satellites retired of the French Guiana
• July 26 — Gilmour Space's Eris to motorboat connected trial formation retired of Queensland
• July 27 — China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation's Long March 6 to instrumentality disconnected retired of Xinzhou
• July 30 — The Indian Space Research Organisation's GSLV-F16 volition depart with the ISRO-NASA associated satellite, NISAR, retired of Sriharikota